Donovan Rypkema’s quotes from phone conversation 9/5/2005

On St. Francis Hospital:

I have walked around it. The challenge with old buildings is often difficult, but that’s not the case with this one. It’s a solid building with lots of reuse potential. There are hundreds of examples across the county where hospital buildings have been reused.
It’s just a paucity of imagination to think it can’t happen on this site. It’s just short-term, silly thinking for anyone who can’t imagine a new use.
Set aside any historical value, it’s a good building.
Adaptive reuse is a common sense solution in a place like Santa Barbara. Workforce housing is the most important issue in development today. This is an optimum opportunity,

Author of The Economics of Historic Preservation: A Commuity Leader’s Guide, published by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.